ALOOOOOOOOHAAAA!!! The hooptylau is upon us once again! This year we are saying good-bye to an important building in Polynesian-Pop history, the Stockton Islander. (The Islander building is now known as "the chicken kitchen" at the kitschy roadside attraction Pollardville) Hence, to commemorate the fate of the Islander, we are doing it up hawaiian-hillbilly style! We hope you can join us September 16th and 17th for our crawl through the central valley of California.

This is our tentative route, leaving from Modesto around 3pm-ish on Saturday:

Stop#1: On-Lock Sam’s A hidden treasure in a fairly hoopty area of downtown Stockton. On-lock Sam’s changed locations from a small downtown restaurant into a free-standing building in the early 1960’s. It features two beautiful signs outside, unique architecture, and Mafioso curtain booths. While the cocktail lounge has been stripped of any Polynesian evidence that once existed, they still serve tropical cocktails and yummy Chinese food appetizers.

Stop#2: Pollardville Chicken Kitchen (aka: the old Stockton Islander building)Yeeee-Haw! Featuring a true old west ghost town (the movie set from The Big Country), Pollardville is about as far away from Polynesia as one could imagine. The exception to this fact is that the restaurant is housed in the old Islander building, which was moved in the 1980’s from central Stockton. Unfortunately, this kitschy roadside attraction will close in 2007 and the Islander building is slated for demolition. Our group will be the last to bring aloha back to the Islander and truly wish it happy trails. What better way to do that then to dine in the covered wagon and grub on some fried chicken? This will be our dinner stop, so bring a few bucks to buy some down-home grub.

Stop#3: the dark marq room The bar is OPEN! We will put together a menu of fine tropical cocktails for your drinking pleasure. There will also be a new original cocktail for folks to try!

Stop#4: Tropics Motel/Tiki Lounge A great A-frame tiki bar on the same property as the Tropics motel. The Tropics was a Ken Kimes venture built as a sister motel to the tropics in Palm Springs. These two structures and the root-ball tikis on their premises (carved by Ed Crissman of Oceanic Arts) are great examples of the penetration of Polynesian-Pop into main stream/small town America in the 50’s and 60’s. The tiki lounge is now a bustling gay bar which has done some nice restoration improvements to the inside décor.

Stop#5: Minnie’s Established in 1954 by Hop Louie, Minnies has a great collection of original black velvet paintings as well as oil paintings done by the artist Ralph "Burke" Tyree. They also have several vintage carvings as well as many new ones. The specialty drink is “the jerk” which is definitely one-of-a-kind. Be sure to order one if it is your first time there!

THEN, on Sunday you are invited to Jungle Trader’s Outpost for a lazy day of recovery around (or in) the pool. The Outpost will be open from 11am until 4pm and serving up brunch for hung-over hooptylau crawlers. Jungle Trader’s backyard oasis is not to be missed! It features a beautiful waterfall, koi pond, meandering stream, JT’s carved tikis, and an inviting pool.

Sound like fun so far? Well we aren’t done yet! Here’s what else you’ll get!

1. A designated driver to haul you around the whole night.

2. A hooptacular souvenir CD of some of the craziest hawaiian hillbilly tunes you have ever heard, with keen cover art by the great Chongolio.

3. A poker run for prizes! Top 5 poker hands will win a prize. We are going to play hold’em style.

4. A “hooptiest/hillbilly” aloha outfit contest. Prize is TBD. Do you have an aloha outfit that has hung out in your closet way too long? Maybe a piece of clothing you just aren’t too sure about wearing in public? Throw it on and come on down! Extra bonus points for combining western hillbilly wear with aloha hawaiian wear! Tikicleen is the judge, so impress me!

5. Hanging out with 20 other tiki-philes.

Can you really put a price on all of this!?!? Well, unfortunately we have to!

PLEASE LEAVE ME THE FOLLOWING INFO IN THE NOTES FIELD WHEN YOU SEND YOUR PAYMENT:

** Your TC name **

**Your real name**

**Your phone number**

**Where you will be staying**

**Your address if you need the coupon for the motel**

*****please leave this info for everyone you are paying for******

Second, payments need to be received by September 10th. On or before the 10th (if we reach capacity earlier) I will send out a mass e-mail with the critical information that you will need. This itinerary will give all of the times for pick up and more detailed info on the crawl.

Here are some motel options:

THIS IS THE RECOMMENDED PLACE

1. Best Western Townhouse ~ 209-524-7261 909 16th street, modesto
This is where most tikiphiles, such as hanford and thejab (mistakenly), stayed last year. It is clean, safe and 2 blocks from Minnie’s. If you stay here CONTACT ME. I have a couple $7 off coupons I can send you.
RATES: $81.75 (this was the rate I was told when I phoned) if you do a quick search on a hotel rate engine, I KNOW you can get a much better rate (somewhere in the neighborhood of $69)

2. Days Inn ~ 209-527-1010Clean and safe. Not within walking distance of Minnie’s.
RATES: $89

3. Chalet ~ 209-529-4370Right across the street from Minnie’s but not as safe as the other 2 options. If you are fond of people on bicycles hanging out in your motel’s lot at 2 am this is your place! A true hoopty experience!
RATES: somewhere around $50 …come on, you aren’t really considering this place, right?!

If you choose to stay somewhere else besides these places please make sure the motel is on or near Mc Henry Ave in Modesto. We only ask this to keep the pick up and drop off process as simple as possible.

I wish I could come for Hooptylau and celebrate (late) our birthdays. Dang me, I got some goood hillbilly hawaiian garb~,, and can't come down, sounds like it's going to be a super fun shindig! Have a great time!
PEa

Cleen and the Hat know how to throw parties that are slicker than a chicken turd on the pump handle. And nobody, I said nobody ( except of course Cousin Clem) does the Hoopty Untiki Mofo shuffle like Chongolio. Of course I will be there with spurs on.

Wow, this is gonna be a HOOT! Put on your shi*kickers and come on down- hold on to your hats and glasses, 'cause this is the wildest ride in the wilderness!!
(did I mention we'll be there?)
_________________"But why is the rum gone?!" -Capn. Jack Sparrow

i will confess that i just did something i vowed at age 9 to never do, i bought cowboy boots. however, i can guarantee that i will not take out my fiddle. too many childhood emotional scars from fiddle contests....

this is really shaping up to be a great hoopty weekend! _________________ got tiki?

Here is a new image of The Jungle Outpost. See if you can find my pet alligator. I feed him live ckickens so he pretty much leaves the koi alone. But he does tend to nab a few of the slower/older ones. Hopefully he won't bother anyone. Just keep an eye on your feet. I'll make sure to feed him the morning of the 17th.

Come on Cleen, we wanna see ya' playin' the fiddle and dancin' with yer boots on.